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The Cleveland Guardians have won nine of their last 10 games, keeping the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox on their toes in terms of postseason positioning.
By registering a 3-1 win to conclude the sweep against AL Central leaders Tigers, the Guardians have reduced the gap to just 3.5 games in divisional standings while also getting within 1.5 games for the final AL wildcard spot.
After facing their third straight defeat and seventh in their last 10 games, Tigers manager AJ Hinch got real about the series result.
"We got our a** kicked in pretty much every aspect, and they swept us," Hinch said Thursday. "They're going to get another shot at us, or we're going to get another shot at them, whichever way you want to look at it."
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The Tigers' magic number to win the division is seven with nine games remaining. Three of those games are against the Guardians on the road, making the job that much difficult and that's why Hinch is curious about what will happen when the two teams meet again.
Tigers players aware about team's positioning after Thursday's loss
The Tigers players are aware of the position they find themselves in after losing 15 of the last 22 games. AL Cy Young contender Tarik Skub, who pitched six strong frames for just one run, shared that they need to play a better brand of baseball.
"We just got to move on," Skubal said. "We got to move on and start playing a better brand of baseball. We can't take anything back that's already happened. We can't go back in time. Just focus on tomorrow and try to win a ballgame."
Left-handed reliever Tyler Holton, who tossed 1.1 scoreless innings in Thursday's loss, said, "It's time to buckle up and strap in."
"At some point, we're going to run out of games," Holton said.
The FanGraphs currently projects that the Tigers have a 91.4% chance to win the AL Central. But if they continue to lose, that number will nosedive. Overall, the AL Central could be well decided when the Guardians and the Tigers lock horns against next week.
